Preferment, but NOT sourdough

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JustJoel

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I haven’t found a sub-forum or thread dealing with non-sourdough preferments. I’ve been reading up on Bigas and Poolishes, on the web and with the excellent books you’ve all recommended. With every article, chapter, or recipe, I become more confused. And the discussion about the three major preferments is often heated and prolonged.

I’m not ready for sourdough yet. But I am very ready to use a Biga or Poolish to up the flavor quotient for my pretzel and pizza doughs, my babka, and my French loaves.

Do you make the preferment using part of the flour, water and yeast from the recipe, then subtract those amounts from the recipe when mixing the dough? Do you make a preferment completely separate from the dough recipe? If the latter, how much of the preferment do you add to the dough, and do you need to adjust or reduce the amounts of flour, liquid and yeast in the dough to compensate for the addition of the preferment? Does the preferment take the place of the yeast in the dough recipe? And which preferment works best with which types of dough?

If you feel like mentoring a person whose curiosity can sometimes be irritating, and who is sometimes a little dense, I could sure use some help!
 
I use part of the required ingredients for the dough recipe in my poolish when making ciabatta. I generally make it up the night before, then cover with a kitchen towel and leave on the counter overnight. I then measure out the remainder of the flour and water in my mixer bowl, then add the fermented poolish and mix and knead or fold as required for the bread I'm making.

For instance: My ciabatta requires 35 ounces of flour and 25 ounces of water with 1½ tsp of yeast for 3 loaves. I use 10 - 10 - ½ for the poolish, then 25 - 15 - 1 added to that to finish the dough.
 
Does size matter?

Here’s my poolish, I hope it doesn’t get biga (couldn’t resist, sorry!)!

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